  What are the features of a school change model? Can these characteristics be captured and shared with other schools? How can all members of the school community work together to effect change? In this four-part video series, teachers and administrators explore specific ideas for implementing an apprenticeship literacy model that includes on-the-job experiences in five critical areas: * assessing change over time in reading and writing progress; * colleague coaching and mentoring teams in the classroom; * school-embedded professional development; * a curriculum that uses literacy as a means for monitoring and promoting school-wide changes; * built-in accountability for assessing student (and program) performance. The replicability of the model is illustrated across four schools and seven classrooms. Tape 1: Leadership for Literacy This tape illustrates the seven features of a comprehensive literacy model for school change. One of the most important features is a curriculum for literacy, which places a high priority on reading and writing and includes six essential elements of a balanced literacy program. Authentic examples from classrooms and team meetings illustrate the comprehensive nature of the change process. Four principals explain how they support teachers in implementing changes in their teaching practices, and they provide concrete details for managing a school climate that includes literacy team meetings, peer coaching, and mentoring sessions. The principals discuss the importance of using assessment to study change in student learning as well as in program effectiveness, and they authenticate each feature with examples from classrooms or team meetings. The tape presents a balance between practical implementation issues and a theory of school change. Tape 2: Assessing Change Over Time in Reading Development This tape provides explicit guidance and clear examples for studying the reading development of emergent, early, transitional, and fluent readers. Teachers share specific details for assessing a student's reading level, including introducing a book, recording observations, and analyzing reading behaviors on a reading checklist. The tape illustrates how teachers can use formal and informal assessments to study change in students' reading behavior, specifically changes in fluency, comprehension, and decoding abilities. It also shows how teachers can use a reading assessment wall for studying individual and group progression along a guided reading continuum. Tape 3: Assessing Change Over Time in Writing Development Here teachers will get explicit guidance and clear examples for studying change in the writing development of emergent, early, transitional, and fluent writers. An important focus is placed on the reciprocity of writing to reading, and vice versa. To illustrate the process, classroom teachers analyze the writing samples of writers at different stages and relate those samples to their reading behaviors. Three types of writing assessments aredemonstrated: formal assessments that use writing checklists to document change, informal assessments based on daily conferences and portfolio analysis, and a writing assessment wall for studying individual and group progress along a writing continuum. Tape 4: Teachers as Agents of Change This videotape provides explicit guidance for implementing coaching conferences and literacy team meetings that occur within the natural context of the school day. Classroom teachers demonstrate the importance of school-embedded professional development that includes literacy team meetings for collaborative problem-solving around teaching and learning issues and peer coaching and mentoring sessions around a specific learning goal. The three components of a coaching conversation are illustrated in three contexts: guided reading, literature discussion groups, and writers' workshop. Specific details are included for implementing effective literacy team meetings. Throughout the tape, teachers demonstrate how to create an environment that promotes on-the-job learning. At a time when comprehensive literacy models are more important than ever, this staff development series provides schools with guidance for getting results that are long lasting and self-extending. About the Authors Linda J. Dorn is Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she directs the Early Literacy Center. She has twenty years of experience in education, including eight years as an elementary classroom teacher. Her most recent work includes the development and implementation of the Arkansas Literacy Coaching Model. Linda conducts summer early literacy institutes for teachers across the United States, and she is a popular conference speaker. She is co-author of Apprenticeship in Literacy (Stenhouse 1998), Shaping Literate Minds (Stenhouse 2001), and Literacy Task Cards (Teaching Resource Center 2001), and author of the four-part video staff development series Organizing for Literacy (Stenhouse 1999). Carla Soffos is a literacy coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Her sixteen years in education include eight years as a first grade teacher. Carla works daily with classroom teachers in implementing the Arkansas Literacy Coaching Model, and she presents workshops to school districts across the United States. She is the co-author of Shaping Literate Minds and Literacy Task Cards and is featured in the Organizing for Literacy video series. 2003. Four videotapes (each is approximately 30 minutes, 1/2" VHS) + Viewing Guide Related book entitled "Shaping Literate Minds" (Developing Self-Regulated Learners), by Linda J. Dorn & Carla Soffos. 2001, 142 pages. $19.00. Call 800-431-1242 to order today. |